The article sets out to investigate the training of teachers for Jewish elementary schools in Lithuania between 1919 and 1940. It analyses the training of teachers for the schools of three educational trends, which were established by the Zionist education society Tarbut, the religious society Yavne and the Jewish Cultural League. The article reveals the development of teacher training from summer courses to long-term courses for teachers and the seminary.

The long history of Jewish-Lithuanian relations was influenced by the changing social and economic realities and thus depended largely on the situational context, in which the two communities interacted with each other.1 The relationship that until the middle of the nineteenth century could be characterized by pre-modern social and economic contacts within an agrarian and traditional system had been inherited from the Grand Duchy period. After the middle of the nineteenth century, the emergence of modern and politicized Lithuanian nationalism changed the way in which Lithuanians came to view Jews. Attitudes towards Jews ranged from clerical anti-Judaism and modern anti-Semitism to tolerance within a secular framework. During the interwar period Jewish society was confronted by the necessity of adapting to a radically new reality: a state, in which formerly marginalized Lithuanian speakers quickly formed a majority in the country’s urban centres, exerted political power, became competitors in the economy and professions. Despite the Smetona government’s suppression of anti-Semitic outbreaks and the relatively low level of violence against Jews, anti-Semitism increased among the educated elite during the late 1930s. The domestic and international crises of 1939‒1940 transformed Lithuanian-Jewish relations radically. The first Soviet occupation of Lithuania in June 1940 sharply escalated the violent rhetoric against Jews: they were increasingly attacked as traitors to the country and the main source of Bolshevism. The myth of “Jewish power” became a wide-spread meme among many Lithuanians and gained further credibility as resistance to Soviet power intensified. The Lithuanian Activist Front propagated the ideas of Jewish treason and Communist collaboration in its propaganda. However, it is true that there were brief periods when Jews represented a considerable part of the LCP (Lithuanian Communist Party) compared to the percentage of Jews within Lithuania. A closer study of the ethnic breakdown of the LCP reveals a complex situation, influenced by the constantly changing reality. The real levers of power were not at the disposal of insufficiently educated local Communists, but in the hands of Stalinist cadres, which were loyal to the Kremlin. Before June 1941, Soviet Lithuania was mainly controlled by Russophone newcomers from the USSR. The situational context of the foreign invasion, which evolved in diametrically opposite geopolitical directions, a number of narratives based on the myths of anti-Semitic disloyalty, and political extremism created a toxic atmosphere on the eve of the Holocaust.

The article is based on the analysis of the reports of State Security Department (SSD) concerning antisemitism in Lithuania in 1939‒1940. This section of Lithuanian and world history is known as a turbulent time, so was this period anyhow different in respect with the dissemination of anti-Semitic ideas and actions in Lithuania? Anti-Semitism emerged in Lithuania (as well as in other countries) as one of the results of modernization but the question arises whether the geopolitical tensions in the world had any impact on the relationship between Jews and Lithuanians, not to mention the country’s internal situation, worsened by the increasing social and economic problems, the loss of Klaipėda Region, the attempts to incorporate Vilnius Region into Lithuania, etc. The analysis, which is based on SSD reports, is structured in three parts that analyse the following topics: Lithuanian authorities’ position toward Jewish minority, major anti-Semitic attacks in 1939‒1940, and day-to-day anti-Semitic incidents. It was clear that authorities by all means tried to avoid and suppress any anti-Semitic actions, and if attacks on Jews occurred, the perpetrators were punished. During this period, there were no major anti-Semitic attacks, which leads to the assumptions that Antisemitism was not intensifying over the last years of independent Lithuania, and that daily anti-Semitic actions did not reduce the average of Lithuanian – Jewish conflicts, in comparison with other periods. The source of the conflicts remained the same: distribution of anti-Semitic pamphlets and posters, destruction of Jewish property breaking windows, and occasional physical attacks.

The historical events in the Vilnius region in the years 1939–1941 unfolded a bit differently than in the rest of the North-East Polish Borderlands. Polish population here was much larger, and the Lithuanians’ claims to these lands were merely historical. Soviet troops entered the city on September 19 and remained there until 27 October 1939. Jews constituted about one third of the Vilnius population reaching nearly 200,000, the rest of which consisted of Poles and only a few thousands of Lithuanians. During the occupation of Lithuania, Polish-Jewish relations ran relatively smoothly with the exception of the tragic incidents in Vilnius between 28 and 31 October 1939. Under Lithuanian rule, the position of Poles became even worse than under the Soviets, since the Lithuanians, like their predecessors, favoured the Jewish population.